Recruitment Privacy Notice

We take seriously our responsibility for protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you apply for a position with us and tell you about your privacy rights.

If you apply for a position through our website then please note that the website privacy notice and the website terms of use also apply. These can be found here: www.sharpepritchard.co.uk

Sharpe Pritchard LLP (referred to as “we”, “our” or “us” in this privacy notice) is the data controller responsible for the processing of your personal data both during and after (where applicable) the application process. If you have any enquiries regarding this privacy notice or our privacy practices, please contact us at gdpr@sharpepritchard.co.uk.

How we collect, process and store personal data

You will be required to supply personal information to us in order to apply for a recruitment opportunity with Sharpe Pritchard LLP and allow us to process your application. The categories of personal information which we shall collect, store and use in connection with your application include:

References and other information included in a CV or cover letter or as part of the application process.

Details relevant to determining whether you are eligible to work in the United Kingdom.

Details of any criminal convictions and offences.

Information about your disability status. This data is classed as a “special category” of personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Details about your racial or ethnic background, if you choose to provide this to us. This data is classed as a “special category” of personal data in accordance with the GDPR.

We will collect most personal information directly from you when you make your application or enquiry in respect of any recruitment opportunities. We may sometimes collect additional information from third parties including:

Former and current employers.

Suppliers to ensure that there is no conflict of interest with your employment.

Disclosure and Barring (DBS) check service providers.

We process your personal information to allow us to communicate with you about the recruitment process, assess your skills and qualifications for the position applied for, carry out background and reference checks and check that you are legally entitled to work in the UK.

Your personal information will be treated by us in entire confidence and used for the purposes of your application only, except that we may use the information contained in your application for purely statistical purposes, for example, to allow us to carry out equal opportunities monitoring.

We will process your personal information on the legal basis that it is necessary for our legitimate interests where such interests are not overridden by your own interests or fundamental rights or freedoms. Our legitimate interests include processing your enquiry/application for a recruitment opportunity and deciding whether to appoint you to the role applied for. We also need to process your personal information to decide whether to enter into a contract of employment with you.

Where we collect particularly sensitive personal information about you (‘special categories of data’), we shall use this in the following ways:

We will use information about your disability status to consider whether we need to provide appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process, for example whether adjustments need to be made during an interview.

We will use information about your race or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

We will collect information about criminal convictions and offences if it is appropriate given the nature of the role that we wish to offer you (e.g. a solicitor role) and where we are legally able to do so. We have in place appropriate safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data.

If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we will not be able to process your application successfully.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, consultants, agents and professional advisers who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and the applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Third parties

The only third parties with whom we will normally only share your personal information are authorised providers of Disclosure and Barring Services or clients who are statutory bodies who impose requirements on us to provide criminal records and other security checks. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow third parties to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Data retention and deletion

We will only retain your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal requirements.

If you are unsuccessful in applying for a position with us, we will retain your application for 12 months unless you consent to us retaining it longer, for example because you wish us to hold it on file for future opportunities. We retain your personal information for that period so that we can show, in the event of a legal claim, that we have not discriminated against candidates on prohibited grounds and that we have conducted the recruitment exercise in a fair and transparent way.

If you are successful and accept a job with us, then the retention periods for employee personal data shall apply.

When our data retention period has elapsed, we will securely destroy the personal information held about you.

Your legal rights

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during the application process.

In certain circumstances you have the right to:

Ask us for a copy of any personal information held about you.

Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you.

Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it.

Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.

Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above or would like further information about your rights, please contact us at gdpr@sharpepritchard.co.uk.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.